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Université Daily Kansan, February 27, 1981
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Comedy given American premiere
By SHAWN McKAV
Entertainment Editor
It began as a classic example of who knows whom. A member of the theatre department happened to read a playwright's manuscript. In 1943, he visited Missouri Harper's Theatre and the stage was set.
Negotiations between the playwright and the University of Missouri at Kansas City brought Herbert Appleman's comedy, "A Perfect Gentleman," to the UMK stage.
Lord Chesterfield (Daniel Macdonald) is greeted with an impulsive embrace when he surprises a surprise dinner guest. The wife of the late Miss Eugenia Peters (Nancy Nichols) are staying in an acune from Herbert Appleman's comedy.
Based on the life and personal letters of Lord Chesterfield, Appleman's comedy received its American premiere last night at 8 in the Helen F. Spencer Theatre.
Noted as a famous orator and British wilt, Philip Dormer Stanhope, the fourth Earl of chesterfield, gained literary fame after his letters to his illegitimate son were published. Designed for the education of a young man in society, his letters soon became required reading for the heirs to the European monarchies.
APPLEMAN SAID he first read *Chestertail*'s
literature as an undergraduate at Harvard
"I identified totally with the son and found the father dominating and not at all sensitive to his anger."
After marrying at a very young age, the playwright had a son. When the child reached the age at which Appleman had first read the British novel, he sent letters and saw them in a totally different light.
"When I read them as a father, I read them as a different sort of letter," he said. "I found a very sensitive father going to great pains in his business. Now I was sympathetic with the father."
Appleman said he had found a play in which he could write about right versus right instead of left.
SET IN the Golden Age of the British empire, "A Perfect Gentleman" takes a galeen look at the eternal conflict between father and son. Lord Chesterfield has dreams of his son becoming a British ambassador and ultimately prime minister. To this purpose, he sends his young son, Philip, to Europe, hoping that a proper education will transform him into a perfect gentleman, one capable of ascending the ranks of British society.
When Philip returned home, his father finds something less than the witty and dignified he expected. Ill-suited to the political career patterned for him by his father, the confrontation between the father's ambitions and the son's reality begins.
Appleman said he set the play in the 18th century because it allowed the characters an elegance—"an elegance not in great supply in our society."
Characterizing the production as a modern play born of very personal impulses, Appleman said, "There has always been an inevitable conflict in a father and son relationship as the result of their differences. However, the conflict can be dealt with. There is a gap, but there doesn't have to be a gulf."
The letters have been described as a guideline to successful, worldly career, according to Applicant.
"But Chesterfield was very unusual in that he eliminated emotion and was very candid about the way the world was," he said. "They are now living in worldiness—how to be eminently civilized."
APPLEMAN SEES the play as recreating the manners of an era of great importance to the mankind.
"There has always been a certain style in society," he said. "The question is one of which style. In the past 20 years, the style chosen was an anti-style, but it was still a style.
"It was a style that thumbed its nose at "previous styles and ideals. They created a style with less use for the elegance and manners we had in the past. Now there is a pendulum swinging back. People are more receptive to what the older values had to offer."
Although the play is receiving its first professional production at UMKC, it was first performed at the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theater in New York. It was also a winner of the American Playwrights Theatre Award.
During its successful run on the London stage, British critics said the play was "very entertaining," "quite splendid," and likened it to "a comedy of manners in the Sherider style."
THE COMEDY is now under option in New York. London and Paris.
"There is a very great interest in the play," Appleman said. "It has been well-received by American audiences. It's not an English play, it's an American play set in England."
The play will be performed in rotating repertory along with "Lady Audley's Secret," "The Night of the Iguana" and "Wings" from Feb. 26 through April 12. Reservations and ticket information can be obtained by contacting the UMKC office at 278-2704.
On Campus
TODAY
THE BIOLOGY CLUB will meet at 4 p.m. in the Sunflower Room of the Kansas Union.
PERSONNEL SERVICES "Performance Evaluation Training Session" will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in 102 Carruth-O'Leary Hall. Call 864-4924 to register.
AEROSPACE INGINEERING COLLOQUIUM will present Al Levi, NASA engineer, on "The Trials and Tribulations of Designing a Space Craft" at 3:30 p.m. in 1340 Wescoe Hall.
TOMORROW
HARRY CALLAHAN: PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE COLLECTION OF HALMARK CARDS, INC. will be on display until tomorrow to the Kress Gallery of the Spencer Museum of Art.
MINORITY AFFAIRS EXHIBIT OF WORK BY NATIVE AMERICAN ARTISTS will be on display in the West Wing of Strong Hall until March31.
SUNDAY
THE ROCK GROUP GREY STAR,
featuring Ruby Starr and Limousine, will perform 9 p.m. at the Lawrence Opera
428 Massachusetts St. The doors will open at 8 p.m.
Weekend
FRIDAY
THE REGULAR GUYS AND THE THUMBS will appear at 9:30 p.m. at Off-The-Wall Hall, 737 New Hampshire St. Admission is $2.
THE PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY will perform at 7:30 p.m. in Hoch Auditorium. Tickets are on sale at the Murphy Hall box office.
SATURDAY
FREE END-OF-MONTH SPECIAL
The events will be at 8 p.m. at:
The Lawrence Ohio House
ART EXCAPSIDE WILL PRESENT THE 9TH ANNUAL ARTIG GRAS mask ball at p.m. in the Bailroom in the Kansas Union, where the game will be played. Howard's Ice-Gets and the Revival Guys.
THE PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY will perform at 7:30 p.m. in Hoch Auditorium. Tickets are on sale at the Murphy Hall box office.
SUA scores with "Charlie Brown;" other series productions fall short
By PAUL STEPHEN LIM Contributing Reviewer
Let it not be said that KU's Student Union Activities does not take risks—especially when it comes to offering theater-goers in Lawrence additional (and sometimes also more viable) evenings of entertainment outside the confines of Murphy Hall.
Which brings us to 1981 and "The 2nd Annual SUA Theater Series." This time around, the choice of plays is less newsworthy, but the further exploration of theatrical and non-theatrical spaces on campus and off continues to be very exciting.
1977, SUA spent close to $8000 to produce my play "Homerica" in the Student Union ballroom. The elaborate set was designed and trucked in from Kansas City. The cast of 17 was culled from Lawrence and its environs. Critics from New Orleans and Los Angeles were flown in to review the play.
"You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," the musical by Clark Gessner based on the cartoon strip by Charles Schultz, was presented in the atrium at Smith Hall in the School of Religion. All the faces are beaver over, but God must still be checking in with the overtics of this particular Peanuts gang.
The "barebones" production was ideal, exactly what the show needed to heighten its cartoon-like quality. Best of all, director Rick Rasmussen got uniformly good performances out of his six-member company. Especially for the role of the widow Cathy Paddock Hill (as Lucy). Hill was "crabbiness" personified in this show, and yet even she was ultimately endearing.
In 1979, we were treated to "The SUA Theater Series" at the Lawrence Arts Center. Of the three plays in the series, only the musical "I Do! I Do!" was less than satisfactory. The other two plays were more satisfactory for Godot" with an all-female cast, and the midwestern form of Arthur Kopf's "Wings."
Where "barebones" worked to the advantage of *Charlie Brown*. It works against Doug Wagner, who is a big foe.
and Men." Steinbeck's play springs out of the naturalistic tradition, and if we in the audience cannot see the shabbiness of the men's bunkhouse or even feel the griminess of their clothing, then we only have the actors' words to go by.
"The actors, in this case, are mostly cardboard cowpokes. The one with the most words to say (Mitch Carter), says them all with the same monotonous drawl, and I for one got tired very quickly of his "quiet intensity." Of the other actors on stage, only Rusty Laushman seemed human. He commanded my attention, even when he was in his bunk sleeping.
The problem here is twofold. Not only do the actors seem to have no feel whatsoever for the period (1937) Steinbuck was writing about, but the director has also failed to shape the play. All six scenes are played the same way, and there are no "moments" to speak of.
"Moonchildren" by Michael Weller, the third play in this year's series, is just as shepale. The most incongruous moment in the evening occurs when the esteemable William Kuhkle appears on stage as the uncle of one of the boys in the rooming house, and proceeds to do his imitation of Laurence Olivier doing his imitation of Neil Diamond's father in "The Jazz Singer."
And here we come to the most irritating thing about this production. As though he didn't trust the playwright's words to speak for themselves, director James Olson utilizes pop songs from the early and mid-1980s to help "voke" the period. This he does not spurn, not even just at the beginning and end of each scene, but indeed throughout 90 percent of the evening!
How can the actors, most of whom are having a difficult enough time finding the right attitudes with which to say their lines, begin to compete with the music and lyrics of the Beatles, the Stones or even Diana Ross? They can't, and so they have to deal with it. "I can't Get No Satisfaction," and agreeing.
For the record, final performances of "Moonchilden" are on Feb. 27 and March 1 at 8 p.m., and those for "Of Mice and Men" are on April 6 at 8 p.m., all of them at the Lawrence Arts Center.
Foreign & Domestic Parts
DON SCHICK AUTO PARTS
1209 East 13rd
Part Stop
841-2200
"WHY DO THE HEATHEN RAGE?"
Psalms 2:1 and Acts 4:25
"Webster says a heathen is one who 'does not believe in God' and the heathen is one who 'God says in this Psalm: The kings of the earth — and the rulers, and the people (who) imagine a vain thing,' and supernatural council to council against, the Gods and His Ancestors."
Does a Supreme Court "bear the God of the Bible" if they reject this Book for our public schools and children? Surely the right answer is, NO! Does a Supreme Court believe in "The Lord's Anointed, The Lord Jesus Christ"? Surely it discloses, for our schools and children? Surely the answer is, NO! Does a President, a Senator, a Congressman, a Governor, a Judge, etc. "bear in the God of the Bible, and His Anointed Jesus Christ" if they support decisions taking the Bible and the Lord's Prayer away from us.
This is a light matter for the believer of The Bible. The ages of Eternity are at stake! Not only the well being of our nation, government, our people, and our prosperity are at stake for time, but also their well being and salvation for all eternity is at stake! Being persuaded, and conscious, and convicted of these truths, millions of men are living on earth to be saved from earth by fire, anguish, and cruel torment, rather than reject "The God of The Bible, and His Anointed, Jesus
Christ!"
We should be careful about "passing the buck" of all those who have a headache. The Lord: "For promotion cometh not from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge; he putteth down one, and seteth up another."
Generally, the Scriptures reveal that the kind of rulers God puts over men are symbolic of the over-all national character and integrity, or the lack of such. In other words, God puts over men who have a cross-section of the national conscience. Like with the individual, this may become "seared as with a hot iron." An indication of the condition of the national conscience is that it does not exist in immorality, etc. Do we tolerate and excuse it, or are we intolerable and fight it to the death? Almighly's appraisal of the natural human heart is: "The heart is intolerable and fight it to the death, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" Jer. 17: 9.
Protestant Christianity produced this great nation, and her good assets of every kind. Protestant Christians have no one to ask but themselves for the sad conditions we now find ourselves in! We are Jonahs! — Jonah "came out of the ark until the denounced" "living vilentnes" and said: "I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of The Lord!"
P. O. BOX 405 DECATUR, GEORGIA 30031
FUN & GAMES COSTUMES 1002 Mass.
SUA FILMS
(1980)
Friday, Feb. 27
A joyous celebration of the talent, energy and enthusiasm of performers, here a group of talented actors in School for the Performing Arts. A Puerto Rican comic (Barry Millen), a streetwise actress (Marion Teety) are among the students (Gene Anthony Ray) and a shy would-be painter (Amaurea Teety) are among the vibrant, dynamic film. Directed by Paul Midnight (Middleton Express). (134 min.)
Enter the Dragon
(1973)
Bruce Lee's last and greatest role was in this action film, one of the best pure action artists expert who intrigulates a strange tournament in this exciting, mind-boggling戏片. Directed by Robert "Robbie" Riggs in his bid "17/811 am" Color: 12:00M HD
Saturday, Feb. 28
Fame
3:30, 7:00, 9:30
Enter the Dragon
12:00 Midnight
Sunday, Mar. 1
The Last of the Blue
Devils (1980)
A rare and wonderful look at some of the greats of jazz (especially Kansas City, Missouri) long gone masters. Above all a tribute to survival, such American music greats as Count Bale, Jay McShannon, Big Joe Jones, and many others pay tribute with their living, infectious music, while Charlie Parker, Lester Young and others are memorialized in his own book. At our native art, a labor of love by Bruce Rickter that is simply unforgettable Plus: Cab Calloway and Betty Moore, the Moother; (907) 811-Color. 2:00.
Unless otherwise noted; all films will be shown in the Woodstock Auditorium in the evening on Friday, Saturday, Popular and Sunday, Friday, Saturday. Tickets available at the SAU office, Kansas Union, 4th level, Information 864-3477, No smoking or refreshment al-